December 21, 2005

From the WFMU News Vault: Upsala Gazette, 1971

After the WFMU staff walkout in 1969, Upsala College closed the station for 10 months, until they hired a new station manager to run the station with "a more professional effort".

Troubles soon arose between Alan Fritch, the new station manager, and the staff at the station. This issue of the Upsala Gazette from March 12, 1971 (PDF file, 1.27MB) details a full-blown controversy surrounding the dismissal of two staffers by Fritch, a list of grievances against Fritch brought before the WFMU Radio Board by the station staff, and the subsequent vote to dissolve the Radio Board.

Apparently, as quoted by one Upsala student, Fritch didn't "get along with the kids". The list of 15 grievances included complaints about Fritch acting as a "policeman" and "stifling dissent". He dismissed two staffers after they broke into the station after-hours. Whether he was a power-mad dictator or merely doing his job was a matter of opinion. Some staff members believed that Fritch was "slowly getting rid of the long-hairs", while Fritch claims to have been "merely going by policy". Lots of interesting details about the controversy surrounding Fritch's management and about the station in general (like how one of the dismissed DJs was cut loose after an on-air "marathon.. reading of Lord of the Rings") are all available here.

Comments

It was May 1970. The Ohio National Guard had just killed several Kent State University students protesting the Vietnam war. I was one of several Upsala students who "occupied" the WFMU campus radio station studios for several days afterwards. (I was the music director at WFMU.)

We broadcast revolutionary rhetoric over the airwaves, read from Chairman Maos Little Red Book, and gave out the addresses of military recruitment centers and police stations along with instructions on how to concoct the perfect molotov cocktail. Ah, those were the days.

When the FBI, the police and the frazzled Dean broke the door down after our three day siege, I was the one on the air at the control board. The song "Monster" by Steppenwolf was playing, with that pointed chorus refrain "America where are you now?" as the FBI agents pulled me forcefully out of the seat.

I remember asking - over the air- with all the innocence I could muster "Listeners, we seem to have been paid a visit by the FBI. Let me ask, why is the FBI shutting down the station?"

Over the open mike the agent screamed "we don't have to give you fucking bastards a reason!".

I asked if I could log that FCC violation before I left.

It was September 1970. In response to the "turmoil" at WFMU the preceding semester, the campus administration - ie: Dean Perkins and his proletariat running dogs - clamped down on the hippie student staffers by hiring a repressive goon robot from Indiana named Al Fritch. Needless to say, the former station manager, being one of the instigators in the takeover of the station the previous Spring, was not invited back to college.

Fritch was a semi-conscious creature with limited grey matter whom they could easily manipulate into clamping down on free speech and anything remotely construed as creative expression at WFMU. They figured with Fritch on board, they could run a clean ship, a good ship lollipop.

Physically, Fritch was reminiscent of the actor Drew Carey, sans Carey's personality and humor. He lived in the apartment building next door to mine on Park Avenue, with his wife "Kitten" and his 1950s-throwback son "Scotty".

His idea of "creative radio" was to play six Carpenters songs in a row.

Fritch did not like me at all. He particularly did not like the fact I frequently played John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" on my radio show.

At his wits end, Fritch summoned me into his office. He sat at attention behind his desk, tapping a number two pencil upon the desk with great authority, while his second-in-command, an odious nerd-lackey by the name of Bill Collins (air-name: "Damien Collins") sat beside him, probably wondering where he'd left his drool cup.

"Pete" Fritch said "I want you to censor out the obscenity in that song you play, you know, the one by that Beatle guy".

"Aw, gee, Al, do I hafta?" I protested.

"Yes, Pete, you do" Al commanded, "we can't have: "till you're so fucking crazy" going out over the airwaves at WFMU. I run a tight ship here".

"That you do, Al, that you do" I agreed. I stood up to leave and had to restrain myself from saluting.

On my next radio program I made a point of censoring out the offending word on "Working Class Hero". When Lennon sang "till you're so fucking crazy you feel nothing at all" I bleeped out the offending word over the air so it sounded like this:

I remember that day well. I remember that broadcast. I was a friend of Peter Tonks at Upsala and would like to reconnect with him. Can you forward my info to him? Jody Miller Hill.. jhill@hillenv.com or jodymhill@aol.com. Thanks